Zapiro is Jonathan Shapiro. Born in 1958, he went through architecture at UCT, conscription, activism, detention and a Fulbright Scholarship to New York before establishing himself as South Africa’s best-known cartoonist. He has worked for Mail & Guardian since 1994, Sunday Times since 1998 and The Times since 2009. He has also been editorial cartoonist for Sowetan and Independent Newspapers. He has published 19 best-selling annuals as well as The Mandela Files, VuvuzelaNation (a collection of his sporting cartoons) and DemoCrazy (his cartoon collection on SA’s 20-year trip).

Zapiro’s numerous SA awards include the Mondi Shanduka Journalist of the Year award and two honorary doctorates. Internationally he has won the Principal Prince Claus award (2005) as well as Press Freedom awards from the International Publishers’ Association, the Media Institute of Southern Africa and Cartoonists’ Rights Network International. In 2011 the magazine Jeune Afrique voted him one of the 50 most influential people in Africa. He lives in Cape Town with his wife Karina Turok and his two children, Tevya and Nina.